My rendezvous with the Camera
Asha


Note: I honor photography and I have very high regards for photographers as well... This is not meant to demean them.. This is just my experience with the camera so far ( or maybe I should say so near... read below and you'll understand!!!!!)
The title might give you an idea that I am a good photographer with a lot of lens experiences in my kitty... But let me tell you the truth.. I'm not even an amateur photographer... I admire photographs and am awestruck at the patience of the photographers.....
As a kid I had always been in front of the camera and hardly behind it which made me feel that photography is "no big deal"..... It didn't take me long to realize that it was a fallacy... The time I got the Best Student Award in a quiz competition they had asked to pose for the photo with a bunch of winners and I was holding my trophy facing me and not the camera... The timely intervention of the Guest of Honor saved my face...
My first tryst behind the lens happened during my 10th standard convocation.. Diana, a friend of mine, handed me a camera and asked me to click a pic of her receiving the memento from our principal. The camera seemed weird to me since I was holding a camera for the first time. I was so nervous that I just held the camera to my eye and waited. But then I felt that people seemed to look odd through the lens.Before I could ask anybody around me for help, it was Diana's turn. I thought "Ok, whatever, first click this and then analyze.." and I clicked..... A bolt of light flashed on my temple.... At first I didn't realize what was happening... I just gave the camera back to Diana...
A few weeks later when I met Diana, she told me that she was not able to figure out what happened to the photo cos it was just not there... On checking out the entire album, I came across a snap of something which even she couldn't identify... But then how could I not recognize my own nose that my bro was sooo fond of.... Damn!!! That moment it struck me that the bolt of light was the camera's flash!!!!! Till date Diana does not know that I had clicked from the wrong side of the camera!!! I feel sorry for not capturing her valued moment!!!!!
There was another occasion where I clicked a snap when a mirror was present and when the photos arrived nothing much was visible because the flash light fell on the mirror and reflected back!!!!! From then on my hands trembled each time I clicked a snap and the photos appeared like I clicked just before I fell or like the people in the frame were travelling in a slow moving train.... :(
By this time it had dawned on me that there was a special connection between me and the lens immaterial of whether I was in front of it or behind it...
Just to add to my Camera miseries, I had another experience a few months back... After a year long vexation by my parents I finally decided to get a few snaps of mine clicked for the so called martyr-maniacal (read as matrimonial) purpose. The photographer must have known about my association with the lens so he didn't even spare me seconds to breathe between snaps, so smiling and posing was a forgotten thing... The output was a rare beauty... The 10 photos appeared to indicate 10 different things
1.I'm hallucinating
2. I'm giggling during my hallucination
3. I'm thinking "Please let me breathe!!!"
4. I'm thinking " Next photo or what???"
5. I'm smiling and thinking " I'll run once I'm done with this!!!"
6. I'm half asleep
7. He made me stand holding a chair so I was laughing at the idea!!!
8. I'm thinking "Shall I run to the right or left?"
9. I'm thinking " Yes Asha!!! Come on... Only one more to go!!!"
10. I'm beaming at the photographer "Yes its done!!! Now I can go home!!!!!"
 But now with my VGA phone, I'm trying my best to break my special bonds with the lens.... So, when my aunt handed me a Deezycam (Shailaji,Swappy,- are you reading this???) and asked me to click photos I made the best use of it!!! I'm eagerly waiting to have a look at those pics!!!!!! :) :)
Is there anybody who can help me overcome my peculiar connection with the camera???? Help!!! Help!!!!
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An apprentice's journey of life
Asha



I wasn't a vagabond in the initial years of my life....I was settled in my cozy home for 17 years during my schooling..

Then when I started getting a little too comfortable there, my parents decided it was time to let me fly so that I could learn to be independent... I was very excited about the whole thing... But little did I know how difficult it was...

I felt like I was Nemo lost in the Pacific, and I did end up in a hostel which was like a collection of specimen including me... But all the specimen were extremely good at heart and from then on started the most beautiful days of my independent life...

I was an apprentice, ready to learn new lessons in life... As I look back now, I realize I got to learn many more lessons in life than I could ever imagine to want to learn... I experienced disappointment, failure, heart break and ridicule during some days... But most of my days were filled with fun, deep friendship, care and laughter...
College was hell with all subjects flying above my head and throwing villainous shrieks at me... I felt like I was Lt. Chris Burnett trapped behind enemy lines or like Jack Sparrow marooned on an island ..... I survived ..... All this with the help of friends who kept adding up in my list..... some touched my life over a long period but some stayed for as few as 14 days and changed my life forever... Everybody had something to teach me and some leave behind wonderful memories...

All these years have been the pages of my life that have been carved in gold... Soooo precious and soo memorable!!! Ohhh my God.. I'm feeling sooo nostalgic now...


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